A World Gone to Vampires
by misus-spike
Summary: There's a new drug on the streets of Sunnydale and people are doing more than getting high off it. How will Buffy react when she can't distinguish between a real vampire and a human drugged to be one temporarily. Post Dead Things.
1. Chapter 1

As the sun set on the seemingly sleepy town of Sunnydale, Buffy Summers knelt down to pull up the zipper of her faux black leather boots. She pushed the faded denim of her bootleg jeans down over her boots and headed out with a stake in hand and a spare in the pocket. The sky was neither a blue, nor black, but a purplish haze of grey that hovered over the muted neighborhood. There was no distinguishing quality about the night to mark it in the mind of young blonde, but had there been, it's unlikely she would have noticed.

Buffy marched stoically down the streets towards the graveyard at the opposite edge of town. She took no pleasure in the walk, yet she prolonged it as much as possible, for it was much more favorable to find a walk dull than to be unfeeling to the company of her friends and family. It wasn't that her companions bothered her; it was just that she no longer felt the slightest desire to interact with them in any way. Not that she felt much more inclined to do anything else, but she was supposed to slay and so she would.

Upon entering the graveyard, she found no immediate signs of beasties that she might slay, so she began to wander aimlessly through the various headstones and memorials. Her thoughts drifted in several directions as she walked. She thought of her life before she had died and the people she has loved in that life. She had loved Angel so deeply she had often wished she could stop, just to end the pain of a love so powerful in a relationship so doomed. Now she wished she could remember what it felt like to have a passion so strong. Angel had once told her that passion was the emotion which had most guided his life—which he believed most guided all people's lives. Devoid of passion of any sort, Buffy felt as though her soul remained in the grave.

Well, of almost any sort. The only passion she seemed to be able to feel now was a passion of the flesh. The memory of her recent encounters with Spike brought a crimson blush to her cheeks. He had defiled her in ways she had never imagined and she had reveled in it. She could remember vividly the fire that his cold touches had evoked in her and realized with embarrassment that the thought of it excited her even now. Embarrassment turned into shame as she wondered what her friends would think if they found out, but it wasn't long before her mind returned to more pleasant thoughts of how good Spike's body felt and she became lost in her imagination.

By the time she approached the other end of the graveyard, the sky had morphed into an obsidian black and the moon had risen overhead. Buffy was startled out of her daydream by the sound of two voices. Instantly in slayer mode she crouched low behind a large headstone, ready to fight as she listened to the conversation between two males near a robust billowing tree.

"Dude, this is so sweet. We're like freaking immortals man! Watch this," Buffy heard a sharp intake of breath and peeked around the headstone to see that one of the two, both of whom appeared to be in their late teens, had stabbed himself in the heart with a hunting knife. I Must be fledglings. I The weird thing was, she wasn't getting any vamp vibes off the two at all. If she hadn't seen one just stab a knife through his heart and remain upright, albeit he was now holding his chest and moaning in pain, she would have thought them to be no more than a couple of kids hanging out where they ought not be. I Ah well, I know a vampire when I see one at least. Lack of spidy sense is probably just another lovely side affect of being dragged back from the afterlife. I 

Buffy rose up and faced them, shoulders square, hands on hips, "Oh boys." She had their attention instantly and they looked hungry, but it only took a moment before she had slammed her stake into the spot where the hunting knife had been only a moment before.

Ready to take the next vamp in one quick maneuver Buffy spun around to face him, but she riveted back when she heard a loud thump on the ground beside her. Where a pile of dust should have been settling lay the fresh corpse of the vampire she had just killed, mouth open and eyes rolled back.

"Oh my God."


	2. Chapter 2

"What the! What the hell did you do?" the teen's companion bellowed in a panic at Buffy. Buffy tried to speak but her words came out in an incoherent jumble. She knelt down and felt the boy's wrist. She looked up in horror at his friend.

"He's dead," she choked out. Tears began to roll down her cheeks. She couldn't believe it, not after what had just happened with Katrina. She couldn't go through this again. Her mind flashed back to Faith killing a man in that ally. She remembered the dead look in faith's eyes that had remained once her horror had passed. Then she remembered Katrina again.

"Warren. This has to do with Warren."

'What are you talking about you crazy bitch?" the kid was getting hysterical, pulling at his hair and hyperventilating. "You fucking just killed him!"

Suddenly Spike was there with his arm around her. He guided her to sit back against a mausoleum and then strode over the boy. He went over and felt the boy's wrist as well and then squinted his eyes in confusion.

"What's that you're saying mate?" He said, standing and pushing the hysterical boy back a little and another look of confusion crossed his features.

"Look! Look what she did! She killed Evan. I can't believe she fucking killed him."

"Evan's blood is cold mate, so I think you're going to have to come up with a better story than that," Buffy glanced with surprise at the corpse. "And if you decide to open your mouth to anyone about this, if I hear a word, I assure you that you will be just as dead as your friend, but there might not be as much of you left behind." Spike morphed into game face and snarled and the kid, despite being in game face himself, stumbled off terrified into the night.

Spike walked over to Buffy who still had tears running down her cheeks and helped her to her feet.

"Best run home love," he said softly to her with a tilt of his head.

'I can't. We can't just leave him here. I mean I don't know what to do. I don't know if I killed him. I thought he was a vampire, but," she let the sentence hang and they looked at him.

"Slayer, don't be a fool. This is Sunnydale. If this isn't just some weird hellmouth phenomenon then it's the nerd herd messing with you again. If you report or move this body, they'll only suspect you and the last thing you need right now is a police investigation. There's no need to feel guilty—you're not responsible for this. "

Buffy hung her head and began the trek home. Spike fell in step beside her and placed a guiding hand in the small of her back, but she pulled away not wanting the contact. The two walked in silence to her doorstep and Buffy entered without a word or a glance, leaving Spike to face the night alone.

Buffy ascended the stair case and locked herself in her room, not bothering to check if anyone was up or to ready herself for bed. She sat on her bed, hugging her knees to her chest and staring at the moon mid in its nightly descent, wondering what hold this world kept on her.


End file.
